Parliament has established an independent advisory panel to study legislation passed between 1994 and 2015 in a bid to weed out laws that are impeding transformation, job creation and poverty alleviation. Headed up by former president Kgalema Motlanthe, the 15-member panel will have a year to look at laws already passed.Parliament has passed hundreds of pieces of legislation since the dawn of democracy, but the panel said yesterday it would be look specifically at legislation and its effect in four key areas:The triple challenges of poverty, unemployment and inequality;The creation and equitable distribution of wealth;Land reform, restitution and re-distribution; andNation-building and social cohesion.Speaker of the national assembly Baleka Mbete said the panel's primary concern was the effect of legislation after being passed.She said recent events in "certain pockets of society" indicated that legislation on inequality, for example, had not worked.The ANC has come under fire from opposition parties, with the Economic Freedom Fighters openly declaring that the ruling party "sold out" when it negotiated the country's transition back in 1994.There has also been growing concern about slow transformation progress across key sectors.Constitutional law expert Shadrack Gutto said nothing stopped parliament from reviewing legislation."The important thing is what is it that is being reviewed? Is it the working of the legislation, its implementation, or a question of more resources?" Gutto asked.In 2012 the government proposed assessment of the Constitutional Court's judgments but had to tone down its intention when serious concerns were raised about the extent of the intended review.At the time President Jacob Zuma said the plan was not to review the Constitutional Court but its powers.Yesterday political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said the planned legislation review could be an attempt by the ANC to put some content to what has taken place, under its governance, in the first two decades of democracy."My sense is that the party is trying to lay the basis for some transformative agenda that is envisaged to unfold a lot faster than has been the case. Remember, the ANC is under pressure from some people who frequently ask: 'What have you done?', almost to suggest that little has been done."The panel includes people from fields such as economics policy, finance, health, education and land reform. It includes former auditor-general Terrence Nombembe, former Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni, member of the first democratic parliament Brigitte Mabandla and Judge Navi Pillay.Pillay said the panel would be funded by a small donation from the UN Development Programme, mostly to cover costs of public consultations. "None of us here expects to be remunerated," she said. The UNDP had offered to compensate some members of civil society organisations, she said.The process will be conducted through calls for public submissions and public hearings to study what member of the panel, Olive Shisana, called the potential "unintended consequences of legislation".She said the panel was different from the processes of parliament's portfolio committees - which interact with and pass legislation - in that it was independent and "not politically motivated".Deputy speaker Lechesa Tsenoli said one of the difficulties of passing legislation was that despite consultation there were no guarantees "nothing will fall through the cracks"."It is in the implementation where the paw-paw hits the fan, that the real things will emerge."It was unclear which legislation would come up for review.Mbete said "many laws have been passed since 1994 and we can't review all of them". She said, however, that she hoped the panel would look at issues of inequality.Motlanthe said the panel would be guided by the call for submissions, which would hopefully "narrow the focus", while Pillay said if would engage the judiciary and magistrates who "daily see the impact of laws on people, particularly poor people". Though specific legislation has not been identified, issues of land and land ownership, inequality and South Africa's "burning issues" are sure to come up.Pillay said she hoped South Africans would use the platform to express their concerns.Motlanthe said legislation changes had to have practical implications for South African citizens, giving the example of regulations in setting up a business potentially being too strict."Maybe we can look and say these issues are too cumbersome and are working against job creation," he said...